A panel of Georgia Power representatives testified for eight hours at Tuesday’s Public Service Commission hearing about its controversial roadmap for meeting large-scale, data center-driven energy demands over the next decade.

Georgia Power, a national data center association, and clean energy groups are divided over the need for legislation that would prevent state-regulated utilities from raising electricity rates to cover the costs of energy-guzzling data centers.

Georgia's largest provider of electricity says retiring coal will have to wait due to massive energy needs from new manufacturing but mainly from internet data centers.